Ruben Navarrette: Cruz should stick to his words

Is Ted Cruz a terrorist? Chris Matthews thinks so. That is, if one uses the word "think" lightly.

Matthews has said some daffy things. But this time, in using the "T-word" to describe the junior senator from Texas, the MSNBC host who in 2008 said during one of Barack Obama's campaign speeches he felt a "thrill going up my leg" really outdid himself.

I've known Cruz for more than 10 years, and trust me when I tell you that this rising star in the Republican Party wears comments like Matthews' as a badge of honor. He won't be shamed or intimidated into following the crowd. He doesn't care what anyone thinks of him or his tactics, and he won't change either so as to be more popular with the Washington elites. Besides, I don't imagine that he's in any danger of winding up on a government watch list. Although, given the way the administration treats its critics, conservatives shouldn't take anything for granted.

Still, there are other perils. What Cruz really needs to worry about is that he doesn't become just another one of those mealy-mouthed political leaders in his own party that he enjoys criticizing so much.

In the case of one phrase in particular that recently got him into hot water with members of both parties, the problem isn't what Cruz is saying. It's that, in a rare retreat, the normally outspoken senator denies having said it. And are you going to believe him, or your own lying ears?

It all began when Cruz restarted his war with the GOP establishment, fellow Republican senators and Washington insiders. He poked at them for their reluctance to stand with him - and colleagues such as Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah - to defund Obamacare, even if it means shutting down the government.

"I believe it's terrorism," he told viewers. "This is the first time I've seen a political party, or even a fraction of it, say that their number one goal is ... to shut down the American government ... kill a bill that's already been passed by Congress, and refuse to pay bills already run up by the Congress in an attempt to basically risk default. This is an attempt to destroy all we know of the republican form of government in this country."

Matthews needs to get a grip. As long as there are real terrorists hatching murderous plots and threatening the lives of Americans, and a resurgent al-Qaeda forcing the closure of 20 U.S. embassies and consulates, talk show hosts should be more careful with the labels they throw around - especially when, ironically, they're criticizing someone for supposedly saying the wrong thing.

More often than not, the senator from Texas says the right thing. His Senate committee critiques of Chuck Hagel, Dianne Feinstein and Eric Holder were epic. The truth has a way of making people uncomfortable.

And this is exactly what happened when Cruz chose to use a particularly loaded phrase to suggest that many of his fellow Republican senators go along to get along, and are much too quick to throw in the towel on political fights.

In an interview on Sean Hannity's radio show on July 25, Cruz said this: "I am perpetually frustrated by what seems to be the surrender caucus in the Congress, the group that just wants to give in."

That's it. "Surrender caucus."

When conservative radio host Laura Ingraham asked him if maybe that term wasn't a little harsh, Cruz ducked the question and insisted that he never "said an ill word about any of my colleagues." It appears that the senator meant that he has not mentioned them by name.

Ingraham helped out her guest by pointing out that his chief of staff, Chip Roy, had actually tweeted the phrase and maybe that's where all this started.

No, it started with the senator, in that interview with Hannity, and later another half-dozen media interviews where Cruz used the word "surrender" or variations of it to describe the modus operandi of his GOP colleagues.

My friend, be careful. You weren't wrong to use that phrase. The GOP has surrendered, time and again. And the Republican establishment in the Senate seems ready to do the same thing when it comes to defunding Obamacare.

It's your phrase. Own it. Otherwise, who knows? In time, you might just go from being the solution to becoming part of the problem.